Temptation

by Karen Ann Hopkins

I was planning to sneak up on her, but when I saw her start to canter ahead of me, I was impressed by what a good rider she was, and impulsively kicked Rumor into a gallop to race her. If the field had been a little longer, she would have definitely whipped me. Rumor was carrying a lot more weight and beginning to labor. I was happy that we were even able to stay with the gray horse for as long as we did.

  Not being able to keep the smile from stretching my mouth, I decided that the evening had been the most fun I’d had in a very long time—maybe ever. She was the perfect girl for me, I reckoned—except for not being Amish. But I didn’t care that she was English. My ideas about the people of the outside world had changed overnight—at least about one of them anyway. I knew that my feelings weren’t rational and that my behavior was dangerous, but I wasn’t willing to walk away at this point. I was driven now to see it through.

  Cantering up the driveway, I quickly unsaddled Rumor and put him out in the pasture. I finished cleaning the stalls and then hurried to the house. The sky was coal-black by the time I entered the mudroom and pulled my boots off.

  Seeing Jacob and Father sitting at the kitchen table under the dim light of the gas lamp with a pile of papers strewn out around them, I wasted no time asking, “Jacob, have you found a driver for tomorrow yet?”

  Without raising his head, he replied, “No, I called several people, but they’re all busy.”

  His voice held a hint of disappointment, and I seized the opportunity. “I found a driver for you.” Both Father and Jacob looked up at me speculatively and I continued, “While I was out riding, I met Sam on the road and he was in a dually truck with an extended cab.” I took a second to breathe. “I asked him if he would be interested in driving us to a horse sale tomorrow with our trailer, and he said he would—but he’d have to check with his father first.”

  It was strange how easily the lie came to me. I was willing to do just about anything to see Rose again. Obviously the time spent with the beautiful girl was already corrupting me.

  Studying their expressions, I saw Jacob’s face brighten at the news and Father purse his lips, thinking for a few seconds before answering. “That sounds like a possibility. This is the biggest sale of the season, and I’d hate to miss the chance to trade those two horses in for the quality of team you could find there, Jacob.” He paused, meeting my eyes directly before asking, “Will the girl be going?”

  “I don’t know, Father.” I said it with no emotion, hoping my face showed none either.

  Father thought for a minute or so longer, absently scratching his beard, before saying, “Well, I suppose it will be all right. After all, your uncle Reuben will be going with you boys. But…” He paused to look at me, unsmiling. “If the girl does go, I’ll not have you talking to her at all, Noah. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Father, I do,” I said tonelessly, but inwardly my heart was beginning to race. I’d say anything you want me to say, Father.

  The phone in the shed rang at that moment and I knew it was Sam. “That’s probably Sam. Do you want me to go talk to him?”

  “Yes, you can make the arrangements. I think I’ll be turning in now—morning will be here before we know it.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder as I passed by him and said, “Good night, Father.”

  Stepping out into the cool night air, I knew that sleep would be a long time coming for me. I was so stirred up with the knowledge that I’d be spending the entire day with Rose that I’d probably be up all night.

  * * *

  When I saw Sam’s truck coming up the driveway, all feelings of sleepiness left me. I could make out that Rose was in the passenger seat, and my heart skipped a beat. I quickly turned away and continued currying old Buttercup’s tawny fur, being careful not to let my eyes stray back to the truck.

  I finished Buttercup and moved over to Sally. Starting on her, I could hear Sam backing up to the trailer behind me. I was nervous that Rose would walk over and begin talking to me. She was so forward that it wouldn’t surprise me at all if she ignored my warnings.

  Instead, when I spied over my shoulder with a glance, she was standing behind the truck, directing her brother to the hitch. Not something a girl would usually be doing, but at least she wasn’t talking to me, and that was a good thing at the moment.

  Resuming Sally’s brushing, I registered that Rose’s long hair was pulled up in a ponytail, and she was wearing faded blue jeans and a blue T-shirt. She looked good in blue. It matched her eyes. I had thought the same thing the night before, but that shirt had been different than this one, prettier in a way. Then again, she was beautiful in anything.

  Once the trailer was hitched up, Jacob and I loaded the horses and climbed into the backseat of the truck. Jacob explained to Sam that we were picking Uncle Reuben up on the way.

  As Sam pulled carefully out of the driveway, I couldn’t help wondering what Rose was thinking at that moment. She had been silent, not even a nod in my direction. I was beginning to think either she was a very good actor or she didn’t like me anymore. How irrational to think that. She was doing exactly what I had told her to do, but now I was aggravated with how well she was doing it. It made no sense at all, but then, all my common sense went out the window when I was around her.

  It was still early morning and the cloudy, overcast gray sky had not opened up to the sun yet. The air was warm, though, and I figured it would be a hot day later on.

  Pockets of wispy fog covered the roadway, and Sam slowed down accordingly.

  Rock music was blaring from the radio, and I wasn’t surprised when Jacob, speaking loudly to be heard over the noise, said, “You probably shouldn’t play the radio when my uncle gets in.” He said it in a friendly but uptight way.

  “Sure thing, bro,” Sam replied amicably as Rose reached for the knob and turned the music off.

  It took just a few minutes to reach Uncle Reuben’s house, where he was waiting by the roadway for us. When the truck stopped, Rose jumped out of the front seat, offering it to my uncle, who tipped his hat and thanked her. Then she did the unthinkable—pushing the front seat forward and climbing in the backseat, right next to me.

  While I was worriedly trying not to let my long leg touch hers in the cramped space, Uncle Reuben turned and said, “Good morning, boys.”

  I froze.

  “Good morning, Uncle. It looks like we’ll have a nice day for the sale,” Jacob answered in his best adult voice, thankfully getting Uncle’s attention away from me.

  Uncle Reuben then looked over at Sam and said, “I don’t think I’ve met you, young man.”

  “I’m Sam Cameron, sir, and that’s my sister, Rose,” Sam said, not taking his eyes off the road.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sam,” Uncle responded without acknowledging Rose. Usually I didn’t pay much mind to how the other men ignored the young, unmarried women of the community, but at the moment I felt the heat of embarrassment wash over me at my uncle’s rudeness. Wondering what Rose thought of it, I shifted just my eyes over to her. She sat perfectly still, looking out the window away from me, so I couldn’t tell what was going on in her pretty head.

  It was uncomfortably tight in the backseat with very little legroom for two men over six foot. I continued to be careful not to lean my leg onto Rose’s, instead holding it awkwardly away from her.

  As I tried to listen to Jacob and Uncle speak about crops and workhorses, the closeness of her body distracted me. I wanted to hold her hand and relax my leg onto hers. The scent coming from her was tantalizing my nostrils, a subtle, warm smell of lavender. I knew that smell well, for Mother had the plants growing in her garden.

  I tried not to think about her scent, her body or her face, and just stared straight ahead for the hour-long journey through the countryside. It was damn near impossible, though, with her sitting just inches away.

  When we finally arrived at the stockyard, I was happy to get out of the truck and stretch my legs. I needed to get my body away from the object of a
ll its discomfort. Sitting so close to Rose without being able to touch her was like having an itch that I couldn’t reach to scratch. It bordered on torture. Careful not to look in her direction, I went to the back of the trailer with Jacob and unloaded the horses.

  Uncle Reuben waited with me while Jacob went into the building to get the horses’ numbers. The place was filled to bursting, and we had to park in the neighboring field just to get a spot.

  There was a festive atmosphere surrounding us with the murmuring of so many conversations popping from the crowd, mixed in with the neighing of horses in the air. The scent of grilling hamburgers floated on the breeze and my mouth watered even though I wasn’t actually hungry. Once Buttercup and Sally were tied to the trailer, I risked peeking at Rose and saw her staring intensely at the workhorses.

  Then she turned to my uncle and asked, “How old are they?”

  He seemed a little surprised that she had spoken to him, but he recovered and answered, “I believe they are eighteen and nineteen.”

  “That’s not very old. There was a lesson horse at the barn I boarded at that was twenty-nine.” She spoke with a sharp voice, and I braced myself for what she’d say next.

  Uncle took her statement in stride. “Well, I’ve heard of riding horses being usable to that age, but truly, the type of strenuous work these horses must do on a farm is too much for them when they get on near twenty.”

  “But what’s going to happen to them now that they’re too old to work?” she asked Uncle pointedly. Then she turned her frown on me.

  Uncle didn’t seem to notice her worry since he was barely paying any mind to her at all. Instead, he was inspecting the pair of black horses that were being unloaded off the trailer beside us.

  “Oh, don’t worry about those drafts, missy. Some English will buy them for a small hobby farm or recreation,” Uncle said as he walked away to greet Simon Troyer and his four teenage sons, who were coming up from the sale barns.

  Timothy, who was the oldest, broke from the group and strode over to stand with me. Surveying the stockyard in the near distance, I could see several other Amish families I didn’t recognize, and realized that Amish from communities all over this part of Ohio would be in attendance—making it virtually impossible for me to talk to Rose. We’d be seen for sure, I thought, chancing another glance at her.

  What? To my surprise she was walking away from us, by herself, toward the sale barns. My mind raced. She shouldn’t be alone in a public place like this. It wasn’t safe or appropriate with all the men around here.

  I urgently rounded on Sam, who was leaning against his truck doing something with his cell phone. Forgetting my code of silence about Rose in front of the others, I snapped, “Sam?” He didn’t hear me and I spoke a little louder, “Sam—your sister is walking away, alone.”

  “Huh?” He looked up at me, confused, and then toward Rose, who was almost out of sight. “So—what about it?”

  With an exasperated sigh, I informed him, “There are a lot of people here, and some of them look unsavory.” I nodded toward two cowboys with tattoos running down their arms, ambling a little ways from us.

  Sam’s gaze followed them for an instant, and then he looked back at me with the same look of bewilderment. “Those guys? Rose can take care of herself. Besides, she has her phone on her. She’ll call me if there’s a problem. Noah, don’t worry about it.” And then he went back to whatever he was doing, dismissing me entirely.

  I was too maddened with him to say any more. If I did, my emotions would show, and someone would notice. My behavior would raise questions, so I silently fumed, waiting for Jacob to return.

  After what seemed like forever, he finally showed up with the numbers, and I quickly put them on the horses and followed Jacob to the sale barns with Timmy still in tow, chattering about something unimportant. I scanned the crowd looking for Rose, but she was nowhere to be seen. Unease spread through me like a wildfire as we entered the barn and my eyes quickly adjusted to the shade. Dismayed, I saw that the building was immense on the inside, with several other barns interconnecting to accommodate the hundreds of pens filling the place. There were so many people milling around, and horses of every breed and color choked the aisleways, making it difficult to even move toward the pen that our horses were assigned to, let alone locate an English girl in the crowd.

  The fact that Rose had just left me and gone off by herself really exasperated me. Not only was it dangerous, it wasn’t the way a girl should behave. Rose thought she could take care of herself, but I knew that kind of thinking could get a girl into a bad situation. And fast.

  Amish girls, on the other hand, were raised from a young age to be obedient and dependent on the men in their lives. The men cherished their women and the women loved them for it.

  But I was already in over my head with Rose, and now I had to deal with her wild behavior. Somehow I’d have to curb her impulses and make her listen to me. But it was for her good—I’d heard all kinds of stories about what happened to women out there among the English.

  I grunted to myself, pondering the difficulty of getting Rose to change her ways. And I didn’t think she’d be receptive to being told what to do directly. I’d have to be subtle about it and make her think she was doing what she wanted. What a challenge that would be. But I was up for it. If we were destined to be together, then Rose would come around.

  As we squeezed through the crowd, I impatiently greeted several people from our own community and nodded to several more I didn’t know. When running into other Amish people at an event like this, even if you didn’t recognize them, there was a good chance you had some connection—either being related to them directly or through the community. I had to keep up the pleasantries.

  After we got the horses in the pen and I had latched the gate, Jacob said, “I’m going to have a look around. Are you coming?”

  I was uncertain whether it was a question, indicating I had a choice in the matter, when I glanced at Timmy and took a chance. “I thought I’d walk with Timmy… Is that okay, big brother?” I was friendly, hoping he’d give me some space. Jacob nodded, pivoting away and slipping into the crowd. Okay, one less obstacle to worry about.

  I turned the opposite direction my brother had gone and strode forward, looking left and right for Rose without paying attention to Timmy, who was struggling to keep up with me in the press of people.

  “Was that pretty English girl you were talking about at the truck your new neighbor?” Timmy whispered loudly, trying to match my stride.

  So Timmy had noticed she was pretty and wasn’t too shy to say it. I glanced at him, perturbed, but figured he’d probably not report me to the elders. He sneaked around enough that I had a few incidents I could hold against him, and decided that it was safe to give him a small amount of information.

  I stopped and focused on Timmy’s dark complexion and eyes and said, “Look, I’m a little worried about the English girl. Her mom died last year, and she just doesn’t seem stable enough to be wandering around a place like this alone.” Again the partial lie came too easy. Pausing, I saw curiosity on his face and continued, “So I’m going to try to find her and talk her into staying with her brother. I can do that quicker without you.” I started to back away from him and said, “I’ll catch up with you in a little while. Just don’t say anything to anyone.”

  I was about to leave, when he grabbed my shoulder and asked in astonishment, “You talked to her?”

  “Yes, and if you say anything about this to anyone, I’ll make sure the elders know about your driver buying you that beer last month,” I threatened.

  His eyes became enormous, and racing the words together, he said, “Don’t worry, Noah. I wasn’t going to tell anyone.” He stopped and scanned the crowd with a quick motion before going on. “But you better be careful. You’ll be in more trouble running around with an English girl than I will for drinking some beer.” What he said hung in the air for a few seconds before he left me to check out the
horses in the nearest pen.

  The entire conversation worried me, but then, I had more pressing things on my mind—like finding Rose. Spotting a stairway to the catwalks above the pens, I sprinted up them sideways, avoiding the people I passed. Once on the walkway, I leaned over the railing searching the building.

  Amazingly, as if the two of us were linked together invisibly, it only took a few seconds for me to spot her from the vantage point I had. She was standing alone, looking into a pen with a few ponies in it. I made a mental note of her location and quickly went back down the dust-covered stairs to her. By the time I reached her, an English man I guessed to be in his twenties was talking to her. He had a square jaw, roughened with short stubble. He was wearing a black cowboy hat on his head and a big silver belt buckle above his groin. His physical closeness to her riled me and I sped up. As I neared, I could instantly tell by Rose’s body posture that she was uncomfortable in the presence of the man. She was leaning away from him and looking straight into the pen.